Trajectory of Digital Engagement in Contemporary Visual Communication Design in Nigeria

Abstract The story of art in Nigeria is incomplete without accounting for the developments around graphics design practice, especially in formal education in the universities. This study provides an account of how the practice and learning of visual communication design (or graphics design), moved from manual to the digital techniques. It also takes into account the strategic place and development of design-making in Nsukka Art School (NAS), University of Nigeria, as the first university in Nigeria to establish a degree programme in visual arts. As an ensemble of historical pieces, this study constructs an account of the trajectory of visual communication design-making in Nigeria, while using NAS for pedagogical example, deriving information from personal accounts, interviews and archival documents. It follows a historiographic framing. The digitalisation process affected design areas such as two-dimensional design (poster making), printmaking, illustration, product design, creative photography, media production for the screen and other aspects of graphics, and this paradigm shift should be accounted for in order to advance scholarship in art and design history in Nigeria.